OpenPlans at SXSW Eco – vote us up!

We want to see you at SXSW Eco and we hope that you’d like to see us. OpenPlans team members are included on two panels up for vote. If these panels and their topics tickle your fancy, please go vote ‘em up!

Lord Kelvin famously said, “If you can not measure it, you can not improve it.” He was talking about physics, but the same applies to cities. Recent years have seen a proliferation of available data about cities – from real-time transit locations to trees, impervious surface to bikeshare locations. And where data doesn’t yet exist, crowd sourcing and mobile phone sensors provide new opportunities for data collection.

This panel will discuss different examples of how data is being collected, analyzed, and visualized for planning and designing more sustainable cities. You’ll hear from a software developer, planner and researcher, all working on data collection and analysis tools to create better places to live and work.

Even the most promising solutions for a sustainable world will fail without active communities supporting them. But today we see countless transformative solutions being crippled by “social media strategies” that have been recycled from the world of commerce; designed to abet individual consumption rather than empower participation in systemic change. Join as we discuss the missing ingredients for true social change and the opportunities for communities to do more than just manufacture buzz.

Our panel of experts will draw on examples from their experience building Mission Electric, a “game for change” to empower citizens to participate in their city’s transportation transformation and ioby.org, a platform that empowers neighborhoods to invest in meaningful sustainability shifts in their own backyard.

Head over to the Panel Picker for a full list of other proposed panels. Voting is open until June 29. SXSW Eco foes down on Oct 3-5, 2012 in Austin, Texas. Your questions and comments also welcome, please leave them in the panel picker.